The Devil's Maw
As the armies under Astaroth's flag marched into giant Gargantas, one of the soldier's sang a battle tune before the storm would rage. "Hallelujah" by Rufus Wainwright. A fitting melody to the soldier's who considered the fact that their deaths may be met this day. Ryu was standing there looking at the sky knowing that today Hell was going to claim three more evil beings into it's pit of fire and he was going to make sure they suffered before he killed them. "Ryu. I have a favor to ask. The one the call Devoveo. Leave him to me. I want to see his life snuffed out with my own two eyes. Even if it looks like I will die, stay back." Hayashi spoke quietly, trying to remain calm. "He's the one who gave my dad power. Do you understand what I mean? He's the one to blame." "Sure man, take whoever you want. All I want is to send them to Hell where they belong." Ryu said growling. "Good." Hayashi unsheathed his Zanpakuto, waiting for the command to strike. Sadow and Elizabet' stood at the head of the crowd, issuing orders to step into each squadron's designated Garganta. When all of Astaroth had stepped through, the Gargantas closed and reappeared in another part of Earth, a bustling metropolis littered with snow. Below, a homeless man watched in awe as he saw, what appeared to be, giant holes being torn in the sky, making way for an army to spew out. The man gasped in pain as a hand grasped his soul, which he stared down at. Esurio had stabbed his hand through the homeless man's back and showed him his own soul through his chest. The man disintegrated into a pool of black liquid as Esurio smirked, readying to consume the newly attainted soul. He was distracted, however, by the sight of the army overhead, wondering what they were up to. "Guide my hand,' Ritoru Karasu'." Hayashi whispered, his Zanpakuto changing into a book. It's almost time to start. I'll kill however many of the Vice-kings that I can, and prevent people from having to suffer their abuses. "Help, Omega Satsujinsha." Ryu summoned his Zanpakuto as the energy reverbarated all over the area. Esurio gulped down the soul in his hand and reached into his jacket, a couple of souls concealed in the pockets. He pulls out a cellphone and flips it open, dialing a number while watching the army, concealing his Reiatsu in the alleyway he was in. Vita answered "Yes? What is it?" Esurio answered sternly "They're here." Vita, confused by his words, asked "Who is?" Esurio answered while leaning against a wall "Ira's amassed army. He's finally making a move. Get Devoveo and tell him to meet up at Yosun-metropolis. And tell him to mask his Reiatsu, lest he be detected by these guys." Vita nodded while staring at the large Gargantas from a distance, standing atop a tall skyscraper "Alright." He hung up and stared at the phone, muttering in his thoughts "It's time..." Where is he? I can't see him, or feel him. I can't risk sending Kumo yet, and Djinn is the only one who can heal. Therefore, Grendel would be a good option, but not feasable at the moment. ''Hayashi thought. Just then, the spirit of his Zanpakuto decided to talk. "What's wrong? I know you want to kill some people, but right now, you don't want the VK's to figure out what you can do." Ryu was looking around making sure that nothing was going to suprise or sneak attack him. Akuma used Kogeru to appear next to Sadow, who was surveying the city. He put a hand on his shoulder "This city will be in ruin soon. Do you wish to evacuate the people, first?" Sadow shook his head "By that time, the Vice-Kings would already know we're here and leave. Their deaths will be a noble sacrifice for a greater cause." Akuma nodded in agreement. Round One: Puter Urbis Devoveo appeared next to Vita and Esurio in the alleyway he was hiding in before. The night acted as cover for them. Devoveo demanded "What is this about? I had a meeting with a veangeful old man wanting to get rid of an entire family of pesky neighbors but had to postpone it for your troublesome informa-" Esurio cut in "Ira has arrived." Devoveo went wide-eyed "...What?" Esurio pointed to the edge of the alley, where Devoveo inspected and saw Ira amongst an army in the sky. He was shocked, at first, but soon a dark smile creeped across his face "He hasn't changed at all, it seems." Vita asked, concerned "What shall we do? Now that we know they are here, we can leave if we so wish." Devoveo shook his head "No. Let us humour them. Besides, it's been a while since Esurio has claimed someone profitable, I hear." Esurio, in turn, salivated at the thought of consuming the soul of someone powerful. All three nodded in agreement and they unleashed their massive Reiatsus, toppling the buildings next to them. Ryu heard the buildings crashing down as he went to see what had happened. Hayashi followed Ryu, feeling how truly evil the Reiatsu felt. Elizabet' tried to stop them but Sadow put a hand on her shoulder "Send three others to follow." Elizabet' hesitantly nodded and sent an Arrancar and two Shinigami to assist Ryu and Hayashi. Meanwhile, Devoveo looked around at the rubble as citizens scrambled to get away from the crushed buildings, some surmising that it could've been weak support and that the buildings were made by the same idiots. "Those fools don't care who they kill. To them death is a sport. But Devoveo takes it up to eleven. He tempts people with power, and then let's a proverbial God kill thousands." Hayashi told Ryu as they neared the site of the collapsed buildings. "Don't worry, we're gonna send them to Hell where they belong." Ryu said looking around. The three Vice-Kings watched as they were greeted by five combatants. An Arrancar, three Shinigami, and a Demon hybrid whom Devoveo recognized as the product of his own product. Shade's own flesh and blood. Esurio, on the other hand, was more concerned with Ryu, who's untapped power was immense and, to him, delectable. Vita kept his gaze fixed on Ira, who was distant but also staring him down in turn. Devoveo greeted "Hello. You must be the group we've heard about. ''Astaroth." Ryu glared as he barred his fangs at them while his spirit energy started to rise and grow heavier. Hayashi instinctively knew which one was Devoveo. "I'm going to kill the three of you, but most of all, I will give the one who changed my father into God a special treat. He get's to die first." He summoned Kumo without a word, and sent the spider at his target. Vita, within the blink of an eye, summoned a red trident-like weapon and speared the creature on the back, nailing it to the ground and causing it to shriek in pain. The way he moved, however, made it look like it took little to no effort to pull off the incredible feat. Devoveo smirked at him "Ah yes, Shade's lad. Such a pity. Your father had such promise, but in the end he was just a defective smudge I wanted to call art." Vita grimaced, not wanting to kill anyone if he didn't have to. Devoveo's taunts did nothing to help his cause, however. "Shut up! I'm sick of you using people for your own gain!" Hayashi summoned Grendel, and made a repeat effort to attack Devoveo. As Grendel's spiked club fell toward Devoveo, it slammed down on a Demonic barrier, shielding him. A pair of zombified hands burst from the ground near Grendel's large feet and grab them, pulling him into the sewers below to do combat. Ryu growled as he went up to try and help out Hayashi. Esurio sent a few throwing knives at Ryu's way, impeding him from reaching Hayashi. Ryu released a power wave and knocked off the knives with ease then stopped and looked at Esurio,"WHO ARE YOU?!" Ryu roared. Esurio grinned his signature grin and hissed "Wouldn't you like to know?" "Ryu. Calm down. If you don't, I'll knock you out myself. But I will tell you, those baboons are the Vice Kings." Hayashi used Kogeru to warp behind Devoveo, attempting to use the spine of his Zanpakuto to shatter bones. Ryu calmed himself as he used his Kage Magunamu and shot the shadows toward Esurio at high speeds. Devoveo guarded it with his barrier again and smirked "Why fight when we can negotiate, lad? I'm sure you'd rather not throw away your life for some band of wretches, do you? Afterall, isn't that how your father descended?" Meanwhile, Esurio dodged each of the shadows and threw more throwing knives at Ryu, intent on nailing him to a hard surface so he could consume his soul. Ryu slammed down on the ground causing a shock-wave to rebound the knives to the wall of aone of the destroyed buildingss. "My Father is a person who trained hard and lived up to his name." Ryu said as he glared and sent another wave of energy. Esurio grinned and a black, barbed tail sprouted from his back, nailing itself into the ground so that he wouldn't be flung back. "Negotiate? About what? I have nothing to exchange for anything you may have. I've already got everything I could ever want. And these wretches, as you called them, happen to be some friends of mine. We've trained for this day. And now, we will not bow to you." Hayashi said, completely calm despite the person he was talking to being on his deathlist. Devoveo frowned, disappointed "Pity. But as I always say, trash is born and dies as such." Before any other comment could be made, Vita prepared his weapon to knock Hayashi miles away. Akuma quickly used Kogeru to appear in front of him and landed a hard punch to his chest, sending him miles away, crashing through seven skyscrapers, sending them toppling down and many citizens frantically trying to flee the city. Akuma smirked "One." "Nice one, Akuma! You have no chance against us!" Ryu said as he glared at Esurio and used another shadow attack towards him. Hayashi used Kogeru to make a move on Devoveo, trying to wear down his victim. "You're the trash!" he yelled, attempting to land a punch, even though he had a feeling it would be blocked again. The shadow sliced a gaping hole through Esurio's head, allowing Ryu to see straight through it. He stood there, immobilized by the wound and apparently dead. Meanwhile, Devoveo guarded the attack with his own hand, staring down at Hayashi with his red, slitted eyes "So says the one who was born from a power given to him by me. And the son of a defect so utterly impotent, he failed at being a god." Ryu glared, knowing that it was too good to be true as he, then, sent another powerful wave right towards the body of his enemy. Devoveo's words struck a nerve in Hayashi, a nerve no like no other existed. "I've had enough of you, you pompus windbag! Just like the story of Frankenstein, you created a monster. But this time. it's not your creation you need to fear, it's the offspring of the monster." His eyes turned red as his anger peaked. "Djinn! Come forth! My first wish is to return both me and Devoveo to our full power. My second is to create a barrier around both of us to form an arena where not a soul may interfere." The genie simply nodded, and it was so. Esurio was flung back, his tail unnable to support him. He was slammed into the debris of the building next to them. The two Shinigami moved forward, their Zanpakuto at the ready to impale Esurio. Meanwhile, Devoveo stood still as he and Hayashi were surrounded by a barrier. He yawned at Hayashi's attempts, shrugging them off with a careless smirk. "Fall back." Ryu told the two Shinigami as he started conjuring up black flames onto his sword and focused his energy on a single point, "Kuroi Honoo Kuchikukan!!!" Ryu slashed down as the flames destroyed the single part of debris Esurio was in and burnt it to ashes. Hayashi resealed his Zanpakuto, allowing him to use a blade once more. "I'm not afraid of you. I just want you to know, I will enjoy watching the life leave your eyes." He started chanting in Demon, creating a strange blood-red fireball in his hand, which he then used more along the lines of a flame thrower. Esurio was reformed from a tornado made by the ashes of his corpse. He grinned wide and disappeared, making no sound as he appeared behind the Arrancar at the back, prying his soul through his back and quickly devouring it. He licked his lips in delight and mused "Tasty..." Bitterly, one of the Shinigami charged toward him with their blades raised high. The body of the Arrancar soon turned into black liquid and turned into a puddle on the ground. Devoveo summoned another circular barrier to guard the flames. He chuckled darkly "Is that all you've got, boy? My my, your late father would've been most displeased that the power I gave him created such a weak makeshift son. But since it was my power that created you, I could only hazard a guess that that makes you... my son." Ryu landed down and saw the incenteration where not even a fly would survive, "Well it's over for you." Ryu said, glaring, as he walked away from the scene still knowing that Esurio had another trick up his sleave. Hayashi tilted his head in puzzlement. "Sure. Let's get technical here. I was made to do what Gods were meant for. I was meant to create and destroy. My dad's plan didn't fail. In fact, as you've seen, it worked like a dream. My Zanpakuto isn't even a part of me, it was a weapon fashioned to hold such unimaginable power. The interesting thing is, if I wanted to, I could perform the reverse of creation. In leiu of pulling things OUT of a book, I place it IN. But of course, what fun would that be?" The black, barbed tail that Esurio used before sprouted out of the concrete and wrapped itself around Ryu, pulling him under and through the concrete to Esurio. He grinned while grabbing Ryu's head with one of his clawed hands, the claws themselves scraping his forehead. His other hand prepared to tear out his soul through his back. Devoveo was unimpressed "We Vice-Kings far exceed the power of your puny little gods. We create your gods. Your power is like hammering at an anvil with a feather-duster." Ryu smiled as the replica was destroyed and he was unharmed, "I'm no fool, Esurio, which is why I focused all my power into one Sokudo Danmaku ', since that's all I can manage to make it solid." Ryu said, smiling on top of a building. "Here's a good question: What if that feather duster was made of daimonds? Would not the anvil shatter?" Hayashi asked, a sad attempt at confounding Devoveo. "Besides, if you created every god, who created you?" Esurio grinned up at him "Clever little twerp!" He sent his spear-like tail soaring toward him. Akuma slammed Vita's head against the concrete ground and smirked "Tell me, Vita, how it feels to have ''your head in the ground this time around!" Vita muttered bitterly "Kill me, Ira, and you suffer the lives of so many innocent people...!" Akuma grinned "Like I care. This entire world can be consumed in flames for all I care. Just so long as you understand who is superior, I could care less who gets harmed in my way!" He through the Vice-King into a bank, his ragdoll-like body slamming into the vault, dollar bills flying everywhere. Devoveo smirked darkly "My creator? Think of every nightmare you ever had. Every greedy, sadistic, or hateful feeling you've ever held. think of every time you were an absolute monster. That, Kagekyo boy, is my creator. The very idea of Evil itself. The very image of it." Ryu smiled as he dodged the tail with ease then grabbed it and pulled it towards him, getting ready to slash at Esurio. "I've been fueling my worst enemy in that case? Then I'll make it stronger yet, by ripping your head clean off." Hayashi vanished with Kogeru again, feeling the familiar drain on him. When he rematerialized, he prepared to cut Devoveo in half with one slash. Esurio grinned and prepared more throwing knives to be thrown at Ryu while he was soaring toward him. Devoveo smirked and dodged the blade with ease "A simple attack like that didn't work before, what makes you think it'll work now?" Ryu smiled as he used Esurio's tail as a shield then fired away another '''Kuroi Honoo Kuchikukan at close range. "Don't need it to work. In fact, I'm not even using my body's full potential. Margin trained me for just such a day as this." Hayashi moved away from Devoveo again, and resheathed his sword. "Now that the innocent party no longer has a risk of injury, I'm going to end this with one move." He smiled, carefully planning how to escape Devoveo's barriers. I'm at D3, he's over in G8. His barriers reached to G7. I just have to be very calm. In his mind, he saw Margin and Shade fighting, and Margin's face-to-floor move. "Come on and attack me, or are you scared?" Esurio's entire torso was blown away, but his tail flung about in a desperate attempt to impale him. Devoveo frowned "Mocking me, eh? A bad mistake on your part, kid." At this, he summoned an energy-based Katana and swung it down on Hayashi. Ryu just glared and grabbed the tail before it could reach him, "This time stay down." Ryu threw the tail down and summon one final huge Kuroi Honoo Kuchikukan right on top of Esurio's body. Hayashi didn't even flinch as the blade dug into his shoulder. He took a few steps forward, and grabbed Devoveo's head. With a mighty heave, he sent the Vice-King's body tumbling down into the dirt. "Game over, you sorry excuse for a Demon!" Esurio's entire body was disintegrated in one bright, brilliant flash. Only his twitching, squirming tail remained, which was kept on the ground by Ryu's foot. As the dust settled, a streak of red light flashed through Hayashi's stomach, burning a hole through it. Devoveo rose, dirt covering his person as he frowned in displeasure "I am not amused..." Ryu grabbed the tail and threw it far away,"Stop playing these games and Face me!" Ryu said roaring. Hayashi gasped in pain. "What the Hell? Most people would be dead. Djinn, my final wish..." he trailed off, remembering his Zanpakto was sealed, therefore he couldn't summon Djinn again for 24 hours. "My own plan's going to be the end of me it seems." In his mind he saw his father, Sadow and, Margin disapproving with his recent actions. I'm sorry...I couldn't win. The tail, in midair, connected to another part of the tail and impaled itself into Ryu's stomach, lifting him into the air. Rising from the ground was Esurio in his enhanced true form, a black serpentine monster. It hissed and roared at Ryu furiously, spittle spraying on his face and the smell of ten-thousand corpses filling his nostrils. Devoveo smirked "You know, had you not ruined my finest robe I probably would have spared your life, give or take a few-" he kneed Hayashi in the gut, knocking him to the ground "-scratches! But now that you've really pissed me off... I'm gonna take my time and enjoy myself while I end your pitiful, insect life. Prepare to join your father in Hell, boy, and tell him that I said he was a mistake." Devoveo summoned an energy-based axe in one hand and raised it high to slash off Hayashi's arm. Ryu laughed as he slashed down once more with his sword and broke free from the tail and revealed that he was wearing a heavy weight shirt that caused the tail to only break it off,"Now I'm pissed." Ryu said as he donned his hollow mask and roared. Hayashi smiled. "No. You'll be the one in Hell. Soon after my death, my power will fade as well. Ira and Sadow will kill you in my place. No matter if you end me or I end you, I win." He reached up with his good arm, and stopped the axe cold. "Before I fought you, I was sure you'd die by my hand. Now, I couldn't care less." His eyes returned to their calm, blue color. "So, do you want to kill me, or do you want me to kill you?"